From Bedouin Shepherd to Israeli Diplomat

Ishmael Khaldi tells Aish.com what it's really like being a minority in Israel.

It was after Ishmael Khaldi, 39, visited the University of California, Berkeley campus as Israel’s Deputy Consul General to the U.S. Pacific Northwest in 2006 that he decided he needed to write a book. “People at Berkeley didn’t want to shake my hand because I was there representing Israel,” says Khaldi, author of the recently-released A Shepherd’s Journey, a biographical account of growing up as a minority in Israel. “This encounter, with such ignorance, deep criticism, and inflammatory rhetoric, was the most shocking moment of my career so far.”

Khaldi believes that much of the Western world – the Jewish community included – have a skewed and inaccurate picture of what Israel is all about.

Khaldi’s hope is that his book will help shed a little light on the subject, and provide an inside view of the country’s Muslim Arab minority. “Although Israel is part of Jewish identity and connects every Jew around the world, the state of Israel is not just Jewish and Zionist. It’s a country of all its citizens,” says Khaldi. “My very existence proves that Israel is one of the most culturally diverse societies and the only true democracy in the Middle East.”

The first Israeli diplomat of Bedouin descent, Khaldi grew up as a shepherd in a tent in a traditional Bedouin village.

The first Israeli diplomat of Bedouin descent, Khaldi grew up like most of Israel’s 180,000 Bedouin, as a shepherd in a tent in a traditional Bedouin village. He walked four miles round trip to school each day from his village of Khawalid, near the Jewish town of Kiryat Ata, in the Haifa region. Like most of Israeli’s northern Bedouin, his village established close ties with neighboring kibbutzim, and since the 1930s has had amicable relations with Jewish Israelis, who have played a big role in helping to advance Bedouin technological and agricultural production. Khaldi’s grandmother even learned to speak Yiddish!

Unlike most Bedouin, however, Khaldi, decided not to build a modest home nearby his parents and start his own family and herd. Instead, when he finished his national IDF service (a service both he and all of his brothers completed), he went off to see America. On his return, he earned a degree in Political Science at the University of Haifa, then an M.A. in Political Science and International Relations at Tel Aviv University. After this, he began working for the American embassy in Tel Aviv, then Israel’s Foreign Service, a move which landed him the job at the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco, and onto the Berkley campus.

Apartheid State?

Khaldi’s entire adventure – from tending goats on the hills of northern Israel to meeting North American volunteers from the neighboring Kibbutz Kfar Hamaccabi, to his first foray in New York, where he unknowingly runs across the subway tracks to get to the right side and is eventually “rescued” by a Haredi family in Borough Park, to his long-distance romance with a Bedouin girl from a village next to his family’s, to his formation of close friendships with secular and religious Jews and Muslims on two continents, and finally to his ascent to the Israeli Foreign Service – is recorded in his intriguing new book.

Khaldi attributes his own uncommon life trajectory to the opportunities available to minorities in Israel. “Israel is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-religious society,” says Khaldi, referring to the religious freedoms, women’s rights, equal educational opportunities, economic development, freedom of the press, and legislative representation. “Israel can be an example to the region and help facilitate the creation of regional wealth and development.”

Of course, Israel is not perfect. There is some level of bureaucratic discrimination and an unequal allocation of resources, both on ethnic and non-ethnic bases. But, says Khaldi, the situation of minorities in Israel is no different from the situation of minorities in the United States and other Western democracies.

“There are African American diplomats representing the United States – now there is an African American president – but that doesn’t mean discrimination does not exist in America,” says Khaldi. “It also doesn’t mean that, because there is discrimination, African Americans should wash their hands of their country of birth.”

Furthermore, says Khaldi, given that the U.S. is 234 years old, and Israel is a mere 62 (plagued by external threats, massive immigration, and internal tumult), the status of minorities in Israel is way ahead of the curve, particularly compared with the treatment of minorities in neighboring Arab countries.

“Israel may be the only country in the Middle East where a Bedouin shepherd can become a high-tech engineer, a scientist or a diplomat. The sky’s the limit.”

Khaldi says that he is living proof that Israel is not the "Apartheid state" that some make it out to be. “Israel may be the only country in the Middle East, if not the world, where a Bedouin shepherd can become a high-tech engineer, a scientist or – a diplomat. The sky’s the limit.”

Arab-Israeli Integration

Admittedly, most members of Israeli minorities don’t make it as far as Khaldi. But he says this has less to do with the opportunities offered by the country than with a resistance to integrate; what Khaldi dubs “a self-imposed barrier to full integration into a modern life.”

Most Bedouin struggle between a desire to embrace modernity and at the same time preserve their heritage and customs. Khaldi is no exception. “In a lot of ways I am stuck between worlds,” he says. “We are a very traditional and conservative people, and it is difficult for us to integrate, particularly into modern, secular, liberal mainstream Israeli society.”

Interestingly, it is for this reason that Khaldi says he feels most comfortable in the company of religious Jews, whose culture and values tend to be much more conservative.

Khaldi recalls when he first landed at JFK International Airport, where he was shocked to be met by such a chaotic mix of people and graffiti, and cars and jet engines. “All at once, my exhaustion and anxiety broke open. I felt like the world was collapsing around me, and I cried like an orphan newborn lamb whose mother had just died,” he writes.

Then suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, he spotted a Hassid in the terminal, on the floor above him. “My heart swelled and my mood brightened immediately. I felt as if I had been lost at sea and suddenly spotted a beacon of light,” he writes. It was that Hassid that pointed him in the direction of Borough Park, Brooklyn, where he quickly found refuge with another Hassidic family.

Lost in New York, Khaldi found refuge with a Hassidic family in Borough Park.

Khaldi is confident that the resistance among Israel’s minorities to integrate will melt away with time. Already, the young Bedouin generation is much more integrated and modern than the one before. The same can be said for other Muslim minorities in Israel, although in general the level of resistance among other Arab Israelis is fiercer than among the Bedouin.

Unlike the Bedouin, who are by and large loyal to Israel, many other Arab Israelis are more politically-minded and align themselves with the Palestinians and their national aspirations. What accounts for the difference?

Khaldi explains that Bedouin, who by legend are said to be born of the wind due to their nomadic nature, don’t feel strong ties to any land in particular and never have; whereas the fellahin (Arab ‘farmers’) are agricultural and territorial by nature.

Khaldi came to understand this difference when he went to grade school in the nearby fellahin village of Ras Ali, and again in high school at the Haifa Arab Orthodox College, where he was chastised for his loyalty to Israel.

“I always thought I was an Arab, until I went to school with Arabs who told me no, that I was Israeli and Bedouin. Whereas we [Bedouin] consider ourselves Israeli first and Arab second, they consider themselves Arabs who happen to live in Israel,” he says.

One of his most bitter memories is of his first Memorial Day at the Haifa Arab Orthodox College, where he drew a great deal of attention to himself standing outside his class to observe the moment of silence. “This outraged my fellow students, who taunted, ‘The Bedouins standing with Israel are traitors,’” recalls Khaldi, whose brothers Hamudi and Amin were doing their service with the IDF at the time. “I felt miserable, but I stood there all the same. I am, after all, a proud Bedouin.”

He encountered the same sort of segregation from members of other Muslim communities. “Although I am an Arab Muslim, I am often greeted with suspicion by other Arab Muslims. They look at me first of all as Israeli,” says Khaldi, who now works as a political advisor to Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Yet things are changing. Khaldi says that at least among Israeli Arab fellahin, the sentiment is beginning to wane and that like Bedouin, Israeli Arabs are starting to integrate.

“The world is changing. The younger generation is much more exposed to other values and other cultures and the differences between them are disappearing,” he says. Khaldi points to the growing number of Arab high school girls participating in national service (Sherut Leumi).

This is just one example of many that Khaldi says fills him with hope for the future of Israel and its minority populations. “I am a proud third-generation Israeli. And while it will continue to be a challenge to preserve our culture, I look forward to raising a young generation that is even more Israeli than me,” he says. “There are differences in tradition and religion between us, but at the end of the day we are all Israeli citizens.”

Visitor Comments: 16

(16)
Do Lern Hwei,
November 23, 2011 6:19 PM

Good to have people like Ishmael Khaldi in Israel

Ishmael Khaldi's story should encourage supporters of Hamas and Hizbollah terrorism to seek peaceful solutions to conflicts. Even fellahin are granted the right to practice their occupation undisturbed since the inception of the State of Israel, so long as they do not attack Hebrew Israelis.
I found out from the Singapore Muslims that the Temple Mount was placed under the care of the Wahb administration, which I do not agree with as Muslims had similarly occupied Hagia Sophia and turned it into their own place of worship till the current secular government turned it into a heritage site. Further reading uncovered the fact that the first Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan actually let the local Islamic authorities run that site. There could be some truth that if allowed to participate in the general political life in Israel, Muslims will be helpful.

(15)
Mark Brajtman,
August 8, 2010 3:13 PM

I hope that the AIPAC and BritishJewish Board of Deputies publish this story.
The world must learn the truth, not accept lies from the Arab world. HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE AWARE THAT THERE ARE MUSILMS WHO ARE LOYAL TO THEIR COUNTRY, ISRAEL, ACTUALLY VOLUNTEER TO SERVE IN THE IDF?H OW MANY ARE AWARE OF THE NUMBER OF SENIOR IDF MUSLIM BEDUIN OFFICERS?
TIME FOR THE WORLD TO WAKE UP AND LEARN THE TRUTH, AND START TO SUPPORT ISRAEL

(14)
Anonymous,
August 8, 2010 8:20 AM

As a passionate reader of your web site (I have subscription to articles from your site), I found this article very exciting and interesting.
I haven’t seen this kind of articles in our (Israeli) newspaper; I think this should be published first of all to our internal public, because a lot of us are not aware that this kind of stories (that gives hope to good and better life) exists here.
It should be given more publicity to this story in our media, and even more important to the public opinion abroad.
I am going to spread this article among my friends here and abroad.
I think that your web site is doing an extraordinary job in education, you have a very professional writers that now how to promote JEWISH issues to a non religious Jew like me.
I have always been a proud Jew, but now I even know much better why I should be proud.
I have learn a lot from reading the staff that you publish in your web, all I can say is that you succeed to bring me much closer to Judaism than I have been before I start reading your staff.
Wishing you success in work,

(13)
Anonymous,
August 8, 2010 8:04 AM

My own family ties with Israel go back easily a hundred years and from my having had Beduin grazing their camels and livestock on my front lawn in drought years to my recently seeing a group of Beduin in the Negev in western dress (resembling Mexican movie desperadoes) together with this account certainly shakes up both my perceptions and my hopes for the better. I am grateful to him and to you for presenting this splendid account of our emerging Land.

(12)
Anonymous,
August 6, 2010 10:42 PM

An amazing story tht need to be publicized

I received this from a Jewish educator of adults I know and am so pleased and grateful to hear such an uplifting story in these dismal PR times for Israel. I hope Mr Khaldi's story will be widely publicized.

(11)
Tessie lombe Lusale,
August 2, 2010 5:52 AM

an eye opner to exposure.

A very heart warming and intriguing life story. An eye opener. Khaldi has opened a door of knowledge that is birthed out of a sense of rejection to the benefit of all of us. Well done Khaldi it takes one person to begin bridging a gap.

(10)
vicki langford,
August 2, 2010 4:59 AM

from bedouin shepherd

Found this so uplifting...thank you...cant wait to read the book

(9)
Benjamin Ketang,
August 2, 2010 3:59 AM

The Indonesia Israel Public Affairs Committee (IIPAC)

Shlomo it is good to read to read your article, at first meeting they tried us to be "Good" friends then slowly they want erase Yisrael from our heart and Never trust them....

(8)
jgarbuz,
August 1, 2010 11:21 PM

Jewish homeland AND the country of all of its citizens...

Like every modern country, though more like European democracies than the US, it is the homeland of a specific nation, the Jews, but also the country of all of its citizens, both Jewish and non-Jewish. But integration does not mean necessarily mean intermarriage. In Israel, there is no civil marriage. While civil unions and "common law" is recognized, marriage is the purview of the different religious communities. The Rabbinate will only marry two Jews in accordance to halacha. So, while any two people can live together as a couple, and get all the tax and subsidy benefits as if they were married, the Rabbinate will only marry Jews to each other. And hopefully, that is the way things will remain so that Jews can remain a distinct people.

(7)
Ezra,
August 1, 2010 9:57 PM

Israel, land of opportunities

First, let me congratulate the author (Ishmael Khaldi) not only for the awesome article, but also for reflecting and projecting the true Israeli values of honesty, openeness and sense of justice and equality that constitute the core principles of Israeli society. After reading this article, I have a concrete and vivid example which confirms what I always thought : Israel
is a living example of a land of opportunities (for those
who dare to put hatred and animosity aside).

(6)
Barry Werner,
August 1, 2010 9:38 PM

Ishmael Khaldi is genuine

I met Ishmael Khaldi and heard him speak. He is genuine. It is heartening to see this ray of hope. If Israel is to survive, it will have to be in peace with its Arab neighbors. Israeli Arabs, well, maybe mainly the Bedouin Arabs for now, can help bring that about.
I immediately bought his book.

(5)
andre,
August 1, 2010 8:56 PM

We know so little about bedouins

me from afar, that they are proud, fearless, yet
apparently fair, something rare.
The IDF has some bedouins in, it trusts them. Our
whole system : trust.

(4)
Anonymous,
August 1, 2010 6:22 PM

?

Even if Israel's minorities were to become more integrated, what makes you so certain that Jews would necessarily end up marrying them?

(3)
M. Garcia,
August 1, 2010 5:07 PM

fascinating article

A fascinating story. I love to see such an optimistic and hopeful outlook on the integration of minorities in Israeli society.

(2)
Moshe B,
August 1, 2010 3:33 PM

Thanks for printing this!

Thanks for printing this. I added it to my books page for others to see.

(1)
shlomo,
August 1, 2010 1:51 PM

arab integration (intermarriage, assimilation) with Jews is good?

"Khaldi is confident that the resistance among Israel’s minorities to integrate will melt away with time." This is a good thing? We want the Jewish people to assimilate and intermarry with non-Jews? I thought this was what we are fighting against

I just got married and have an important question: Can we eat rice on Passover? My wife grew up eating it, and I did not. Is this just a matter of family tradition?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

The Torah instructs a Jew not to eat (or even possess) chametz all seven days of Passover (Exodus 13:3). "Chametz" is defined as any of the five grains (wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye) that came into contact with water for more than 18 minutes. Chametz is a serious Torah prohibition, and for that reason we take extra protective measures on Passover to prevent any mistakes.

Hence the category of food called "kitniyot" (sometimes referred to generically as "legumes"). This includes rice, corn, soy beans, string beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, mustard, sesame seeds and poppy seeds. Even though kitniyot cannot technically become chametz, Ashkenazi Jews do not eat them on Passover. Why?

Products of kitniyot often appear like chametz products. For example, it can be hard to distinguish between rice flour (kitniyot) and wheat flour (chametz). Also, chametz grains may become inadvertently mixed together with kitniyot. Therefore, to prevent confusion, all kitniyot were prohibited.

In Jewish law, there is one important distinction between chametz and kitniyot. During Passover, it is forbidden to even have chametz in one's possession (hence the custom of "selling chametz"). Whereas it is permitted to own kitniyot during Passover and even to use it - not for eating - but for things like baby powder which contains cornstarch. Similarly, someone who is sick is allowed to take medicine containing kitniyot.

What about derivatives of kitniyot - e.g. corn oil, peanut oil, etc? This is a difference of opinion. Many will use kitniyot-based oils on Passover, while others are strict and only use olive or walnut oil.

Finally, there is one product called "quinoa" (pronounced "ken-wah" or "kin-o-ah") that is permitted on Passover even for Ashkenazim. Although it resembles a grain, it is technically a grass, and was never included in the prohibition against kitniyot. It is prepared like rice and has a very high protein content. (It's excellent in "cholent" stew!) In the United States and elsewhere, mainstream kosher supervision agencies certify it "Kosher for Passover" -- look for the label.

Interestingly, the Sefardi Jewish community does not have a prohibition against kitniyot. This creates the strange situation, for example, where one family could be eating rice on Passover - when their neighbors will not. So am I going to guess here that you are Ashkenazi and your wife is Sefardi. Am I right?

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (1194-1270), known as Nachmanides, and by the acronym of his name, Ramban. Born in Spain, he was a physician by trade, but was best-known for authoring brilliant commentaries on the Bible, Talmud, and philosophy. In 1263, King James of Spain authorized a disputation (religious debate) between Nachmanides and a Jewish convert to Christianity, Pablo Christiani. Nachmanides reluctantly agreed to take part, only after being assured by the king that he would have full freedom of expression. Nachmanides won the debate, which earned the king's respect and a prize of 300 gold coins. But this incensed the Church: Nachmanides was charged with blasphemy and he was forced to flee Spain. So at age 72, Nachmanides moved to Jerusalem. He was struck by the desolation in the Holy City -- there were so few Jews that he could not even find a minyan to pray. Nachmanides immediately set about rebuilding the Jewish community. The Ramban Synagogue stands today in Jerusalem's Old City, a living testimony to his efforts.

It's easy to be intimidated by mean people. See through their mask. Underneath is an insecure and unhappy person. They are alienated from others because they are alienated from themselves.

Have compassion for them. Not pity, not condemning, not fear, but compassion. Feel for their suffering. Identify with their core humanity. You might be able to influence them for the good. You might not. Either way your compassion frees you from their destructiveness. And if you would like to help them change, compassion gives you a chance to succeed.

It is the nature of a person to be influenced by his fellows and comrades (Rambam, Hil. De'os 6:1).

We can never escape the influence of our environment. Our life-style impacts upon us and, as if by osmosis, penetrates our skin and becomes part of us.

Our environment today is thoroughly computerized. Computer intelligence is no longer a science-fiction fantasy, but an everyday occurrence. Some computers can even carry out complete interviews. The computer asks questions, receives answers, interprets these answers, and uses its newly acquired information to ask new questions.

Still, while computers may be able to think, they cannot feel. The uniqueness of human beings is therefore no longer in their intellect, but in their emotions.

We must be extremely careful not to allow ourselves to become human computers that are devoid of feelings. Our culture is in danger of losing this essential aspect of humanity, remaining only with intellect. Because we communicate so much with unfeeling computers, we are in danger of becoming disconnected from our own feelings and oblivious to the feelings of others.

As we check in at our jobs, and the computer on our desk greets us with, "Good morning, Mr. Smith. Today is Wednesday, and here is the agenda for today," let us remember that this machine may indeed be brilliant, but it cannot laugh or cry. It cannot be happy if we succeed, or sad if we fail.

Today I shall...

try to remain a human being in every way - by keeping in touch with my own feelings and being sensitive to the feelings of others.

With stories and insights,
Rabbi Twerski's new book Twerski on Machzor makes Rosh Hashanah prayers more meaningful. Click here to order...